Credit Card Rate Increases....profile of who's getting hit

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to update my reply in case this information may help anyone else who got hit with this rate hike from Citi...

I called them back a few minutes ago to see if I could speak with a supervisor about the account I closed yesterday, and I was told that the rep who closed my account (and had told me I had no choice other than accepting the 29.99% hike) was supposed to have offered a third option - to keep the account open at my current rate for 6 months (and hopefully pay it off) and that the rate would then go to the 29.99%. 

Normally with Citi, if you close an account, you cannot re-open it, but the guy I spoke to got approval to re-open it and give me this 3rd option since I had not been aware of it upon closing my account yesterday. (I think it also helped that I was reeeeeally nice to him and I told him that I certainly didn't want to stop doing business with them after this many years.) 

This option works better for me because the damage that would have been done to my credit score far outweighs the possibility that I may not have the balance fully paid off before the 6 months is up. Closing this account would have meant losing one of my oldest accounts and losing $17000 from my available credit. 

So, for anyone who got caught by this rate hike, just be aware that they are supposed to offer you this third option as long as the hike was not due to a late/short payment.

[DI]

It would be great if there was an option to reduce the CL rather than raise the rates.   I think that would satisfy the banks reason  for the rate increases. 

[creditwherecreditisdue]

I would rather have the RJ than the CLD. If you PIF one matters and the other doesn't.

[score_building]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
I would rather have the RJ than the CLD. If you PIF one matters and the other doesn't.

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Agreed, I would also rather have RJ over CLD.

[DI]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
I would rather have the RJ than the CLD. If you PIF one matters and the other doesn't.

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Agreed.  I forget about that.  

Message Edited by DI on 10-21-2009 02:35 PM

[Anonymous]

Here is a link to a Huffington Post article on the subject.  Quite interesting and well written.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eva-norlyk-smith-phd/credit-card-companies-are_b_327709.html

[DI]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Here is a link to a Huffington Post article on the subject.  Quite interesting and well written.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eva-norlyk-smith-phd/credit-card-companies-are_b_327709.html

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Citi is saying Happy Holidays, but just not at its expense.  They are staying out of the poor house.  

[creditwherecreditisdue]

Any idea why I can't access that link?

[DI]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
Any idea why I can't access that link?

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I copy and paste.  worked for me.  

[Anonymous]

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@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
Any idea why I can't access that link?

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Try googling:

citi credit card rate increase.

The article should be the first post on google.